#political ideology memes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lilithism1848 · 7 days

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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 1 year

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#us politics #memes #shitpost #stay woke #woke #woke ideology #bigots be like #conservatives be like #republicans be like #republicans #conservatives #culture wars #social justice #equality

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icarusxxrising · 8 months

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The jokes write themselves

"Universalize Nonviolence" and immediately making jokes abt Pinochet. Being oxymoronic is ancap praxis.

Voluntary until it's Communist.

#“an”caps are jokes #fake ideology #reddit politics #meme #violence #sticker #funny

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vinecine · 2 months

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Cr.

#cr.tatsuyaishida9 #anti transgender #lgbtq #lgbtq+#trans #trans agenda #anti trans #transgender #meme #comic #politics #us politics #gender #trans ideology

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unlicensed-un-proffesional · 1 year

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You know it kinda sucks to see Omori reduced to “Quirky earthbound inspired indie game about depression uwu” because as someone who actually played the damn game, it is worth so much more than that, it is so much more than that, it made me actually feel and care for its characters and its tragedies, you can easily sum up the big twist in a couple of sentences but it’s not about what the big shock is, and the writers for Omori obviously knew this. The best experiences are ones you can’t describe and do justice.

You can spoil Omori’s ending, hell it was basically spoiled for me, I got the gist of it, but that isn’t important, that’s not what got me crying over the game a month after finishing it, it’s the presentation and the journey, or you know, the actual experience of the thing, the artistry of the game, and how the game itself, not in a meta sense, but in a practical application is actually part of the story and themes and is what’s used to immerse you into it. And while you can sum the plot up in one paragraph, no good game has ever had its story elements be best experienced by someone telling it to you, and not I nor anyone can mount a proper defense for the game because of that. It is a cute little indie earthbound inspired rpg with darker themes below the surface (uwu) but that’s not a surprise, you can look at the steam page and see all these descriptors in tags, it’s no secret it’s a psychological horror game, you know this going in, the opening cutscene makes it very clear things aren’t what they seem.

The emotional punch that makes you care isn’t the dark themes, the scary atmosphere of its very obviously Yume Nikki inspired section, or even the big bad twist itself, it’s the culmination of the experience that work to make it what it is, and it’s why the ending for the game is what hits hardest, because that’s it, the culmination of the whole experience, and the game has multiple climaxes near the end (shut up) one being the infamous duet, the hospital scene, and finally the end credits, which like the game itself is brimming with beautiful art and music, and no one is going to spoil you on the credits, no one can, it’s just a car ride scene with music playing over, there’s nothing in isolation that makes this moment impactful that made me remember it and specifically the lyrics of the song (it’s more like a sing-alonng really) so well, because it’s the perfect send off in a literal and metaphorical way for all the things you can get spoiled for, and I think the game is worth playing even if you predict the twists or were spoiled halfway through, because Omori is a better game than to rely on the twists and sudden darkness solely, it knows that’s not how you make a story, much less one told through a game lens, and this is the kind of story you can only tell through the medium of a video game, it’s the kind really worth making.

The reason this game was actually made was because Omocat couldn’t tell the story she wanted to through a comic, she needed to tell it through a game, which automatically makes it better than most games that try to cram a story down your throat that would’ve been better as a movie or a show, or even a comic, because this is the kind of game that can only exist as a game and still work.

It can be summed up as a “Quirky earthbound inspired indie jrpg with psychological horror elements” but listing the chemical composition of food won’t tell you about how it tastes or feels, or sits in your stomach, and how it digests and specifically how you would digest it. In terms of gameplay it’s not easy to get into if you’re a fan of any other genre than turn based party rpg’s, but it’s such a basic concept I think anyone could get into it easily. And it is one of those experiences worth having, a lot more than I’d say anything else I’ve had, because it sticks with you, months after the last time you even listened to the soundtrack or touched anything related to it. You don’t ever have to play this game a second time for it to make a lasting impact. You can pick it up, put it down, and digest the experience and dwell on it.

The point is, it’s redundant and stupid to simplify something to its steam tags to shit on the idea of doing something unique or daring to do the fringe thing of contrasting darker elements with cute cartoony visuals, daring I know. (I mean come on guys, South Park’s whole concept is that, “Wow, a cartoony looking thing with children doing something dark and fucked up how shocking!” it’s not a new idea and it’s not why you’ll remember something nowadays, it’s the nuisances beyond that topic (for South Park it’s less about the nu) It really shows to me how little media literacy is left in “gamers.” Sure, video games allow you to live out and play through the stories of your favorite IP’s and also play new original but simple stories that are just a vessel for mechanics to flow through, but why would anyone dare to push the concept of stories that can only really be told through games?

And furthermore, who would want to push the mainstream boundaries of art in games by using 2D pencil drawings, digital art, and pixel graphics together? Dear god what is this? An indie-game that has to stand out using its unique visual approach because it doesn’t have the brand recognition of an AAA title or the marketing of a Nintendo game? And don’t you dare dream of taking inspiration from one of the best of your genre! Lord knows games like Call Of Duty and New! Super Mario Bros. are known world wide for not taking inspiration! Jesus.

I know I’ve been throwing a lot of shade and wink-wink-nudge-nudges at other games, and I don’t mean to, honest, I respect every game like I respect every person, but Omori as a concept has been under attack, not because of the game itself but more so this idea, or the idea it presents of, well let’s just be honest, being visually comfortable and having a unique style and approach to story telling in a video game. Honestly there are a lot of factors at play for this, people recommending the game ad nauseam to their friends, the fandom who has needed therapy exactly 0 seconds after actually completing the game, (I as someone who needed therapy before playing was immune to this, but I don’t think it helped) but also, it’s an art game, and gamers hate art games. Their favorite type of game has got to be corporate show-off games actually, games that run at the best performance and have the highest specs. It’s kind of circle jerking about the most expensive equipment and animations and programmers killed for one model moving in a cutscene in a quest for dust particles on some gruff middle aged mans ear. I mean hey, I love high quality dilfs as much as the next guy, but come on, it’s kind of crazy how much they froth at the mouth for this kind of shit, and how apathetic they are to the health and well being of the actual people who make it for them.

Anyway yeah, gamers hate art games with a good story, likely due to the culture created around games that is all about flexing your skills and capabilities, specifically over other people (it’s a common human desire for competition and achievement and games are a perfect arena for that kidn of thing, but in gamer culture especially. I play TF2, I love watching gibs fly, but I also love 24 person long conga lines, I’m flexible like that) also something something a culture of colonialism, capitalism, and toxic masculinity I guess because it’s an idea woven into the very fabric of our society and there’s no way to avoid it but also it’s fairly redundant bringing it up because to anyone who’s paid more than a blink of attention to the world around them this is a given.

Gamer culture is filled with sweaty dude bros on reddit, and that is a stereotype, but I mean come on, I was one of those, I’m still kind of one of those, and they notoriously have low grades in english and creative writing (not me, I had average grades in most things and was generally unremarkable in school, at least I think I was, I spaced out through most of it, people really paid attention to me though) and they also have very low emotional intelligence, so it’s going to be hard for them to process, well, emotions, like how their low intelligence makes it hard for them to process information (generous vague plural them so everyone will be in one the joke and I can’t be sued for liable (I must admit it is a low blow though (damn these are some good dried cranberries))).

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, I also think most of the fans who’ve fully played the game are still kinda grappling with their emotions and their hollow feeling now that the thing they got obsessed over has ran out of content for them, and had a particular period where they went a little rabid. And also there’s been a recent movement of anti-intellectualism, following movements of thought like “Maybe the curtains are just blue” turning from “It’s not that deep bro” to “Any attempt at depth is stupid and actually writing and stories themselves if they aren’t simple and easy to consume and challenge me in any way possible is an attack on me and is probably something political and I’ll retreat to my A-political game about war where I get to be free from any emotional consequences because I’ve slowly been emotionally regressing since I was 15, because philosophy and psychology don’t belong in video games but I’ll call it politics because I’m repeating buzz words.” And yeah, humans are the worst at not snowballing into destructive extremes.

But also it’s a good game and is the kind of game that hits the standard of what to me makes a good story game. So... yeah.

#omori game #omori #don’t take this too seriously #this is not my political thesis please don’t treat it as such #i have one ive put so much more effort into and don’t my perceived ideology to be based about a post on a stupid screw cringey thing meme #hexacles.txt #pentacles talks #it’s pronounced pen tuh cleese

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787-9dreamliner · 2 years

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DEMOCRAT VS REPUBLICAN EPIC DEBATE BATTLE

DEMOCRAT VS REPUBLICAN

:Drawn by ME:

US POLITICS BE LIKE: :LOUD DEBATING NOISES:

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pickapea · 4 days

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everyone must unlearn the phrase "eat the rich". none of you are responsible enough to use it in a way that means anything

#leaving the echo chamber that is tumblr for 2 years and then returning puts a lot of this site's ''radical'' ''socialism'' into perspective #i'm not politically active either and that's a personal failure of mine #but i am 99% sure that half of you are doing jack shit besides reblog and repeat slogans that are basically just memes at this point #i used to feel strongly about it all and felt all ''revolutionary''#ideologically i'm of course still on the left side of things but a lot of the things i used to preach as a teenager just don't seem feasibl #now that i've actually lived in the ''real'' world #idk #anyway enough about me. i am very sure that a whole lot of you people are in no way ''eating the rich'' nor are ''revolutionaries''#it'd be cool if we all were but i just don't think that is reality so repeating all these old 1800-1900s slogans #just bc they sound cool and powerful. just feels embarrassing. they are just memes now. internet leftist memes. breadtube style #i am not politically active or revolutionary i am tired and spent #i go to work i go to work i go to work i try to keep my apartment clean but it isn't working very well #my work/life balance is non existent and half of the time i'm just trying to enjoy a moment at a time and do something fun just engage #just engage in one singular hobby just indulge in some art form or try to engage in something creative and fun #but i am at work so much #i absolutely do not ever do anything political and revolutionary #''the personal is political'' well then i'm not doing very well for the world. politically speaking #BUT! i go to work and pay my taxes and i let my dishes sit in the sink for 2 weeks at a time and i don't eat cooked meals and i pay my rent #i pay my rent on time and i visit my parents once a month and i manage to vacuum my apartment once a month and i still haven't folded #my laundry #and i do not eat the rich #pickapost

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alchemisoul · 2 months

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"Jerry don't get me started on the moderates, others, none of the abovers, and the politically homeless on the Island of Misfit Toys!

George is getting upset!!!"

#imakejoke #imakememe

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mondonguita · 1 year

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Sometimes accelerationits be like that.

#Accelerationism #crisis theory #supremacists #marxism #big reset #ideologies #politics #great acceleration #fringe philosophy #philosophy #memes #shitpost

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thefiresontheheight · 1 year

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What we know about Goncharov so far:

PRODUCED by Scorsese, but DIRECTED by Matteo JWHJ 0715, get it right.

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino star, along with Cybill Shepherd. Released in 1973.

About Soviets in Naples dealing with the mob. Greatest mafia movie ever made, natch.

Ice Pick Joe is under rated.

Homoeroticism between Goncharov and Andrey is extremely popular in the modern day, bordering on explicit text and desire even through their rivalry and sublimated competing for Katya.

Katya is underused in the movie, and is a complicated character who is both the femme fatale, the center of a love triangle between Goncharov and Andrey, Goncharov’s wife, and also manipulating everyone.

There’s also a scene where Katya kisses Sofia? Tumblr lesbians go crazy.

Had political undertones and commentary, possibly about the failures of the Soviet Union, or leftist ideology vs. realpolitik.

Is over three hours long and kinda slow at times. Violent. Not as easy to watch as the memes and shipping would have you believe.

However conversely film bros who reduce to a badass gangster movie are missing so so much.

Has clock symbolism. Themes of how the characters are trapped in cycles of violence, revenge, hubris, tragedy. Lots of Catholic imagery.

Snubbed at awards, lack of official releases has turned it into a bit of lost media, despite how influential it was.

There have been talks of sequels/remakes through the years but nothing has ever come of it.

#Goncharov #goncharov (1973)

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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 2 years

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just-antithings · 3 months

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Anti-ism is psuedoscience and a moral panic rolled into one

One of the most dangerous things about therapyspeak leaving the intended audience is that now antis feel fully qualified to tell survivors how they should and should not be coping, even to the point of attempting to override/contradict the advice of certified therapists.

I've had antis tell me the fiction I enjoy writing is retraumatizing myself, that I am doing harm by writing it; when I responded that actually, my therapist signed off on the stories I wrote (even when I mentioned the specific phrase "consensual nonconsent"), they said that my therapist doesn't know what she's talking about since she sanctioned my coping mechanism and explicitly labels her practice as kink-positive. Antis are attempting to make me, a survivor with mental illness that could ultimately be fatal if I leave a psychologist's care, disregard the advice of the medical professional supervising me when they have no certification at all. This could, if I were a more vulnerable person, be dangerous for not only my trust in my therapist, but it could sabotage my treatment as well.

They are using what amounts to little more than memes, based on misinformation, that use a few intelligent-sounding phrases that very rarely apply the way they think they do, as a wedge to attempt to assert themselves as authorities who can, with certainty, dictate the appropriate course of treatment for a total stranger, including telling them to disregard the therapies administered by a trained professional.

In other words? Antis are frighteningly similar to anti-vaxxers, who took medical terminology they didn't understand, applied it to shaky cause-effect logic models, started a moral panic, used statements generated by that moral panic as a citogenesis-fueled proof their initial starting of the moral panic was justified, damaged the doctor-patient relationship of millions of total strangers, jeopardized the healthcare of those strangers who now believed their doctor to be incompetent for following accepted medical best practice, and fomented dangerous fringe political ideologies that coupled themselves to other conspiracies based on rejecting commonly-acknowledged practices.

"Vaccines cause autism! Narrative therapy that implements any form of controversial kink causes retraumatization of the writer, reader, or both, and starts the writer on an inescapable slippery slope to becoming an abuser themself! It's better to be dead than autistic! It's better to suffer feelings of shame and/or isolation in silence than it is to use fiction to put a voice to your feelings! Your child is vaccine-damaged from thimerosal and is getting sick from virus-shedding! Your fiction caused me to groom myself and you're a porn-addicted monster for not facing your trauma the proper way! Your doctor doesn't know what's good for you, I do! Only I understand how your body/mind work and what treatment is appropriate for you! Your doctor has been manipulated by Big Pharma/kink supporters! The empirical-study-informed best practices for pediatrics/psychology are what's wrong, not me, whose research is carefully informed by TikTok videos and Twitter posts carefully formulated to cause amygdalar growth to keep me afraid so I will continue to engage with fear-mongering content that causes my politics to shift towards the alt-right, who coincidentally also push narratives based in fear, not in medicine! I am being perfectly logical here!"

Antis fundamentally reject empirical medicine just the way anti-vaxxers do. They just seem to get a free pass on it since it's "only" mental healthcare they are sabotaging, and few people acknowledge it as something as legitimate and lifesaving as other medical care.

#submission #just anti things

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radfemverity · 7 months

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All day on Twitter, pro Palestine westerners of both sexes have been attempting to justify the scenes in the viral video of the deceased, bloodied, half naked woman, being paraded through the streets in a pick up truck by men with machine guns chanting Allah Akbar.

It's come in 3 forms:

1. saying "where were you when the IDF did [X crime] to [Y woman]?" to people they've literally never met and do not know the politics of. They're just assuming that anyone distressed at the footage is a Jewish/Israeli supremacist who doesn't care for innocent slaughtered Palestinian people.

These whataboutery addicts are disingenuous as all fuck, and completely desensitised to acts of violence, so much so that they project their own inability to extend compassion for murder victims on "the other side", onto those whose tweets they're replying to. Victims are just gotchas to them.

But they're cupcakes compared to the next 2 categories.

2. saying that these men's murders of women, abduction of elderly ladies (separate viral incident) and other crimes against civilians is a justified reaction against apartheid and/or settler colonialism, and that Israeli people have had it coming.

I cannot believe I have to say this, but regardless of your opinion on the conflict, whether you’re a Zionist or believe Israel is an apartheid state, if you believe random women, young and old, and their children, being abducted, bombed, raped, murdered and paraded through the streets by men, is a justified response to oppression, then you are dead inside. That’s not brave rebellion. It’s plain old male savagery.

There is, sadly, an academic case which could be made that such brutalities assist the war effort of a nation to gain independence – this being a reference to the fact that the most savage empires, the ones willing to commit the most gruelling acts, tend to be the ones to come out on top during wars. History shows us - think of Rome, Japan, etc.

But this type of speculation almost always crosses the line into justifying such crimes, because it was never about speculation for speculation’s sake. It was about wanting the other side - including women and children - slaughtered. Pro-Palestine Twitter have demonstrated this perfectly today.

Please let me make this excruciatingly clear, this political behaviour is exhibited by practically every male-dominated movement and ideology there is, which is… everything other than radical feminism. Zionists do this too. As do conservatives, liberals, marxists, fascists, progressives, pacifists, nationalists of all stripes – supremacist and anti-colonial, theocrats, Islamists, etc. It’s just that the issue of today is the Israel Palestine conflict, so this is the obvious example to reference.

And the 3rd form of response, much like the 2nd, is to justify these crimes against civilians as an act of rebellion, but go one step further and laugh about it. Saying things like "play stupid games, win stupid prizes 🤣🤣", "Imfao at Israelis suddenly pretending to be victims", making wojak memes and spamming them to the people expressing distress over seeing that video of the dead woman, etc. See this example from a trans-identified man:

Notice how at no point have I said my opinion on the Israel Palestine conflict? Because I have one. And it's probably not what either side would expect. And that’s exactly the problem. My disgust at Palestinian men parading a dead Israeli woman through the streets and spitting on her is automatically interpreted to be me supporting the Israeli state.

But your political view on the conflict should have a 0% impact on this fundamental principle: as a feminist, you do not EVER, FUCKING EVER, think that a woman on "the other side" of a mens war deserves to die.

To accuse someone of not caring about dead Palestinian women, as pro-Palestine Twitter have been doing all day, to random stranger who simply said "this is horrific" re: the dead woman in the truck, is:

a) to project your own heartlessness toward women on "the other side" onto them.

b) to further normalise the glorification of violent men, under this false veneer of their crimes being a necessary and justified revolt against whatever type of oppression they have in their society. As if stripping a woman bare and parading her through the streets has ever been a practically useful or ethical war tactic.

And c) to imply that those on "the other side" deserve whatever cruel fate meets them, simply because the male class of their society committed unjustifiable crimes.

I cannot think of anything less pro-woman, anything less feminist, than that.

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headspace-hotel · 5 months

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weird type of political bloggers on here that post only the most abstruse, impenetrable and jargony of "leftist theory" mixed together with unpleasant irony-poisoned memes and textposts demonstrating in an edgy way that they are cool and ironic unlike cringe liberal fandom nerds.

they post a lot of what is basically "cringe culture" material, but connecting the reason they feel repulsion to their political ideology, particularly implying that fandom or any earnest and unselfconscious subculture is connected to being "liberal."

it looks like there is a real connection, since they usually mock fandoms where serious ideological criticisms of the source material are well known, but they are basically making ideological reasons why they find something "cringe," and you can tell because periodically they slip and say something that is totally fucking unintelligible unless you replace the word "liberal" with "cringe" or "dorky"

This post is about the time I saw someone say it was so weird when liberals called corgi butts 'thicc'

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comradekatara · 11 days

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It’s me again, and I’ve got another ask for ya @comradekatara

And no stupid pol meme’s that I gave only a cursory glance too and stupidly screenshotted this time!

I’ve seen a few of your post (at least I think it was your’s) about LOK. So I was wondering. In regard to the main villains, who is your least favorite/most disliked?

And what would you change about their motivations and perhaps their “villainous” means to make them a more compelling and/or sympathetic character?

lol this is a pretty big ask. i mean basically every villain in lok is completely incoherent thematically, politically, ideologically. people will call amon a communist but he doesn’t actually give a shit about economics or class in any capacity. people call unalaq a theocrat but as far as im aware he isn’t exploiting people’s spiritual faith to gain power, (maybe that’s what he was doing at first, but) he literally wants to submerge the world into “darkness” for one million years for… reasons and purposes. unalaq/vaatu is by far the worst lok villain, but that’s not even saying much because it’s so patently ridiculous and cartoonish. the red lotus are actually compelling but they also love chaos for the sake of chaos (because anarchism!) and want to violently murder a teenage girl and hold a genocided people hostage to do so (despite zaheer’s supposed respect for air nomads). and kuvira is an ethnonationalist who declares herself emperor, so i guess she’s at least a somewhat coherent portrait of a real type of person who actually exists, but the fact that the fascist despot is the ONLY character who points out that republic city was built on colonized earth kingdom land is um….. not a great look?

and then side characters like tarrlok, hiroshi, varrick, queen hou-ting, suyin(???), wu(???) who aren’t really the primary villains even though in many ways they’re more ideologically coherent, are just also kind of weird for their ambiguous framing. like hou-ting is literally kidnapping airbenders and putting them in underground labor camps where they’re tortured and ruthlessly trained into forming an army, which is something that chaisee does in the yangchen novels and is regarded as utterly reprehensible and heinous for it (because it is), whereas we’re supposed to feel bad for hou-ting when she dies because murder is bad uwu. and we’re supposed to forgive hiroshi for [checks notes] attempted filicide. and varrick is just some fun wacky little guy who is a ruthlessly amoral capitalist but also he does the charleston! and isn’t him marrying his overworked, exploited assistant cute?? and not at all grossly misogynistic and horrifying???? LOL!

so i don’t think going through every villain and antagonist individually and imbuing them with depth is really a worthy use of time, since the show largely suffers from incoherence due to the fact that it isn’t cohesive at all. besides korra’s character development (which is excellent), there’s no real central idea that ties every season together. take atla instead: it’s a very linear narrative, with an established goal that is always being worked towards and once it’s ultimately completed, the show ends. lok has no idea what that central goal is. so instead of trying to fix every character, it’s better to work from the center out and first simply define that goal. the central political tension in lok is, fundamentally, a question of whether it is better to alter the status quo in various radical ways, or whether it is better to maintain the violently upheld hegemonic norm by virtue of it being the status quo (and spoiler alert, it’s the latter!). and these radical ways, whether it be the terrorist movement of a fraudulent right wing populist dictator, or the terrorist movement of a bunch of commies, is always presented as equally dangerous and in need of korra’s gaggle of cops, liberals, and capitalists to suppress. what a great show.

however, the lok that lives in my head does away with most of that, and simply focalizes the conflict between the white lotus and the red lotus as diametrically opposing forces both vying to control korra’s position in the world as avatar and reconstitute her legacy on their terms. because korra’s arc is fundamentally about learning to define her selfhood and her role in the world on her own terms, and the one commonality between every villain is that they’re trying to suppress or control her identity in some way. because it’s also, incidentally, a show primarily concerned with the value of identity politics, and doesn’t actually give a shit about any of the class struggles that underpin the show’s worldbuilding and inform so many of its primary characters. so while i’m not opposed to korra’s struggle of identity, and in fact appreciate it a lot and find it personally affirming in multiple ways, korra deserves a show that is actually worthy of her brilliance as a character.

it’s not that korra shouldn’t struggle to establish her identity on her own terms, but that the politics through which they attempt to communicate this struggle are incoherent. so i would simply reframe the conflict as one primarily between the white lotus, who are reformist liberals at best, and neoconservative reactionaries at worst. we see the best of the white lotus in atla (arguably), and the worst of the white lotus in the yangchen novels (which are fascinating and excellent and everyone should read them). xai bau is only ever mentioned in a single exposition dump (in one of the only truly great episodes of lok, i might add), but his philosophy and role in the narrative is nonetheless fascinating to me. the idea that the white lotus becomes more public facing after the war, leading to its detractors also growing more vocal, is genuinely interesting. the conflicts established between the white and red lotuses are genuinely compelling (to a point). but they never truly address how the white lotus kept korra locked away in a compound for the first 17 years of her life, they never meaningfully address the harm the white lotus has done to her and to the world.

like, of course korra couldn’t master airbending, the element of freedom, if she’s never been truly free. korra spent her entire life in a gilded cage, her role in the world and legacy defined for her by liberals who wanted her to be some kind of supercop instead of a genuine spiritual leader. it’s not korra’s fault that spirituality and harmony and meditation are difficult for her, she was literally denied those facets of herself for her entire adolescence. the white lotus constitute a microcosm of the ruthless neoliberal society korra encounters when first arriving in republic city. the white lotus are a metonym for the liberal identity politics centrist reformist vision of the world that lok uncritically presents as the ideal. in a better show, korra would question those systems, disavow them, and even perhaps attempt to dismantle them. korra would define her freedom of self on her own terms by realizing the ways in which the white lotus and their broader ideology has harmed her.

that said, the red lotus is also flawed. and i don’t just mean because they’re chaos-hungry terrorists who love to murder with impunity, but because they’re in the business of denying korra’s agency as a human being and not simply as the avatar. they want korra dead because they don’t believe in the role she embodies. and you know, they can want that for understandable political reasons without being completely evil about it, but obviously in a show as facile and shallow as lok, no they can’t. i think that korra’s brief pause in considering zaheer’s point of view should have lasted longer. i think that korra should have become disillusioned by the white lotus and the stipulations of capitalism (as early as book 1, frankly), and she should have genuinely considered joining them. and once she does eventually disavow them too, it’s not because of their evil commie politics, but because they’re also in the business of dictating her role in the world, and korra can’t stand to be boxed in by anyone, certainly not from people who claim to be in the business of dissolving borders.

so pretty much every villain in lok would fall under either the umbrella of white lotus operatives (whether direct or indirect) or red lotus (whether direct or indirect). people who want korra to be the world’s ultimate cop who upholds the systems that benefit them, or people who think that the avatar has no place in a truly just world, for (honestly) kind of valid reasons. the red lotus would be antagonists who work against korra’s arc of establishing her own freedom and agency, but the white lotus would be the “villains.” and the capitalist juggernauts who mistreat and exploit their workers (and their assistants and their daughters etc etc) would not be let off the hook so easily either. the neocolonial tensions in republic city wouldn’t be framed as an issue of the distant past. the issues of class and colonialism would be foregrounded alongside korra’s struggle to establish her identity. and then, perhaps, the narrative would finally cohere.

#745voiceofthepeople #asks #lok crit #analysis #korra #white lotus #red lotus #oh lok that lives in my head…… save me korra save me…..

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tomorrowusa · 4 months

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Mike Godwin is an internet legend. He was the first known person to use the word meme in its internet context. He's also the originator of what's become known as "Godwin's Law".

In a recent interview, Mr. Godwin stated that comparisons of Donald Trump to Hitler or Nazis are fair and appropriate.

So to be clear — do you think comparing Trump’s rhetoric to Hitler or Nazi ideology is fair? I would go further than that. I think that it would be fair to say that Trump knows what he’s doing. I think he chose that rhetoric on purpose. But yeah, there are some real similarities. If you’ve read Hitler’s own writing — which I don’t recommend to anyone, by the way — you see a dehumanizing dimension throughout, but the speeches are an even more interesting case. What we have of Hitler’s speeches are mostly recorded, and they’re not always particularly coherent. What you see in efforts to compile his speeches are scholars trying to piece together what they sounded like. So, it’s a little bit like going to watch a standup comedian who’s hitting all of his great lines. You see again and again Hitler repeating himself. He’ll repeat the same lines or the same sentiment on different occasions. With Trump, whatever else you might say about him, he knows what kinds of lines generate the kinds of reactions that he wants. The purpose of the rallies is to have applause lines, because that creates good media, that creates video. And if he repeats his lines again and again, it increases the likelihood that a particular line will be repeated in media reporting. So that’s right out of the playbook. You could say the ‘vermin’ remark or the ‘poisoning the blood’ remark, maybe one of them would be a coincidence. But both of them pretty much makes it clear that there’s something thematic going on, and I can’t believe it’s accidental. The question is why do it on purpose. Well, my opinion is that Trump believes, for whatever reason, that there is some part of his base that really wants to hear this message said that way, and he’s catering to them. He finds it both rewarding personally for himself and he believes it’s necessary to motivate people to help him get elected again.

He adds this cautionary comment about the state of American democracy...

When I was growing up and being taught the American system of government, we would always be taught that the U.S. government has checks and balances in its design, so you can’t take it over with a sentiment of the moment. But I think what we’ve learned is that the institutions that protect us are fragile. History suggests that all democracies are fragile. So we have to be on the alert for political movements that want to undermine democratic institutions, because the purpose of democratic institutions is not to put the best people in power, it’s to maintain democracy even when the worst people are in power. That’s a big lift.

#mike godwin #godwin's law #donald trump #nazis #adolph hitler #republicans #extremism #danger to democracy #internet history #internet culture #election 2024

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